Neverwinter CS = First RPG book to focus on a city EVER?!

Windjammer · August 17, 2011, 06:24:34 PM

ggroy, S'mon made a similar point about the book over at Enworld recently:

QuoteMy copy of the Neverwinter Campaign Guide arrived on Tuesday, and I've been looking over it the past 2 days. It seems to be about half players'-side stuff, it has a lot of hooks, it has various NPC faction leaders detailed. It has what looks to be very sketchy area description stuff. It's nicely atmospheric. What it does not seem to have is any sort of "You start here" introduction...

I'm currently running an FRCG Loudwater campaign, the reason it is going well is that it gave me a clear intro point with the Loudwater stuff beginning with Raid on Loudwater, a linear intro scenario, two more single-encounter adventures (great idea, worked brilliant in play), and ideas for further adventures. A kind of V shaped approach, starting narrow and detailed, then getting vaguer as it opens out, inspiring me to start sandboxing. Personally I think this is an excellent design paradigm, certainly for my play style.

But I'm not seeing anything like this in Neverwinter. It doesn't even seem to have the sort of sample encounters that appear in eg the Underdark book. Without a starting point, I feel lost. Are there any adventures in eg Dungeon I could use? I could particularly do with stuff for ca mid-Heroic* play, but I guess low-Heroic can be powered up.

*I like the Heroic tier, but I think the designers of Neverwinter may have gone overboard in powering down everything a bit too much. Making the chief NPCs, the movers and shakers, ca 6th-7th level and not even Elite... would it have hurt to make them 10th level Elites? As written the stat blocks don't seem to fit the fluff text.

I gotta say though, WotC has put out two Monster Vaults which (like Neverwinter) focus mostly on heroic tier critters- so that a shortage of heroic tier stat blocks in the Neverwinter book is probably a plus.

Planet Algol · August 17, 2011, 06:26:58 PM

Hoho, the Dire Corbies really got a promotion in 4E!

ggroy · August 17, 2011, 06:46:21 PM

Quote from: Windjammer;474357ggroy, S'mon made a similar point about the book over at Enworld recently:

Hmmm .....

From the sounds of it, this book is becoming less and less appealing to me. Without seeing it for myself, it's sounding more and more like a "Volo's Guide to Neverwinter" type book with some token crunch added in?

Windjammer · August 18, 2011, 03:50:27 PM

Another review, this time with pics. Behold the return of the Mary Sue's.

To aid those whose eyesight is fading.... "Drizzt is a noble [bla bla]. He gets best along with adventures of demonstrable bravery and honor. He gladly spars with the player characters and might teach them a trick or two." I can see some hot man on drow wrestling at this point. And, if you prove your merit, you unlock the "Drizzt's kick". Marmell & co. at their finest.

ggroy · August 18, 2011, 03:59:42 PM

Hmm ....

Guess they wouldn't kill off Drizzt. He must still be a big seller for FR novels.

Doom · August 18, 2011, 04:06:30 PM

Thanks for the eyesight fader's summary; I turned the screen up to 200% just to read it anyway.

Definitely not regretting going back to AD&D....

crkrueger · August 18, 2011, 04:56:39 PM

Quote from: Windjammer;474523"Drizzt is a noble [bla bla]. He gets best along with adventures of demonstrable bravery and honor. He gladly spars with the player characters and might teach them a trick or two." I can see some hot man on drow wrestling at this point. And, if you prove your merit, you unlock the "Drizzt's kick". Marmell & co. at their finest.

Jesus H. Christ what a steaming pile of shit.

ggroy · August 18, 2011, 05:08:34 PM

Quote from: Doom;474526Thanks for the eyesight fader's summary; I turned the screen up to 200% just to read it anyway.

That excerpt is not exactly an encouraging read.

So far this year, I've had very little to no enthusiasm for any of the 4E books released. The yet to be released 4E titles for the rest of this year and early next year, don't look particularly appealing either.

The cash I originally had budgeted for buying new D&D books this year, I ended up spending it all on the dvd sets of all 9 seasons of X-Files. (Found all nine dvd sets in the bargain bin recently). Didn't see any point in waiting anymore, for more crappy 4E splatbooks to hit the market.

Windjammer · August 18, 2011, 05:43:10 PM

If we're lucky cartographer Mike Schley uploads his maps for the book on Cartographer's Guild like he did before. Having seen these maps in a Youtube review of the book, I got to admit they look fabulous. The book comes with a double sided poster map, one showing Neverwinter, the other Evernight (whatever that is).

ggroy · August 18, 2011, 05:55:11 PM

Quote from: Windjammer;474543If we're lucky cartographer Mike Schley uploads his maps for the book on Cartographer's Guild like he did before. Having seen these maps in a Youtube review of the book, I got to admit they look fabulous. The book comes with a double sided poster map, one showing Neverwinter, the other Evernight (whatever that is).

That would be cool if he does.

If the rest of the book is awful, I don't see any point in spending $25-$30 just for a cool map.

ggroy · August 18, 2011, 05:56:13 PM

"Evernight" sounds like it could be Neverwinter's "evil twin" city in the Shadowfell.

hexgrid · August 19, 2011, 09:18:42 AM

Quote from: Windjammer;474543If we're lucky cartographer Mike Schley uploads his maps for the book on Cartographer's Guild like he did before. Having seen these maps in a Youtube review of the book, I got to admit they look fabulous.

The poster map looks nice, but it's disappointing to me because it has no labels (locations, street names, etc.)

So there's no way to match a description in the book with it's location on the poster map. You have to use the small version of the map that's in the book, which does have labels.

Zachary The First · August 19, 2011, 12:03:58 PM

Quote from: Windjammer;474523Another review, this time with pics. Behold the return of the Mary Sue's.

To aid those whose eyesight is fading.... "Drizzt is a noble [bla bla]. He gets best along with adventures of demonstrable bravery and honor. He gladly spars with the player characters and might teach them a trick or two." I can see some hot man on drow wrestling at this point. And, if you prove your merit, you unlock the "Drizzt's kick". Marmell & co. at their finest.

Awesome! Can I "unlock" Elminster's Suplex as well?

Volo's Spinning Piledriver?

Wulfgar's People's Elbow?

"Drizzt will happily spar with the characters, and they can totally get free panther rides. He also buys everyone ice cream, and will teach them how to backflip. Afterwards, he throws a bitchin' party, and invites them to appear in some rockin' fanfic with him".

Zachary The First · August 19, 2011, 12:23:45 PM

Seriously, it shows all the depth and skill of writing a Goofus n' Gallant cartoon:

Planet Algol · August 19, 2011, 01:09:22 PM

Just wonderful; now D&D players can feel entitled to unlock achievements by hanging out with their favorite characters from D&D fiction. What a delightful development.